Well, it's the month before Whyte Avenue Artwalk, so now of course most everything I am working on in the studio is being put aside for Artwalk. The subject matter I'm working on these days is all over the map; little landscapes, continuing the series from our trip to Japan, and our garden, of course.

orange poppies, mixed media on canvas. 20x20(in), SOLD, 2018

I painted this from a photo I took of a large clump of wild orange poppies growing on the corner of our front flower bed. It was fun to read the comments a few folks left under the photo on Instagram how their grandmother's had them in their garden and seeing my photo brought back all sorts of pleasant memories. I snapped a few more photos last night in the garden while the BD was busy pulling out an old shrub stump to make room for the blueberry bushes he bought. Just when I think that I'm done with painting and drawing flowers, fresh blooms arrive or the light hits something just so and I'm scrambling to capture it on my phone so I can paint it later. I photographed our pale yellow irises and our purple-and-white ones. I'm eagerly awaiting the showy blooms of the yellow-and-purple ones that live just beneath the bird bath. Then of course, there are the damn peonies! Some mornings I linger in the garden a long time, just looking at all of the new growth, watching the birds flit about and studying the lines of the foliage and the shadows that migrate with the daily arc of the sun. I confess, I have not been getting into the studio as early as I would like these days, because I'm so distracted by our garden. Initially the photo I took and used as the reference for this painting was for the mural I intend to spray paint on our garage door. I still intend to paint it on the garage door, but I put it on canvas as a warm-up for the mural. That and painting poppies is just good fun!

On July 5th (the day before Artwalk begins) I will post the full 'catalogue' of what I am bringing with me to Artwalk in a journal post here. I've a sneaking suspicion there will be a few more paintings from our garden, maybe even a few oil sketches. I picked up a few more colors of oil paint last week and they haven't been opened yet! Oh good, another distraction! Just what I needed!